Within you and among you--religion--you can take it with you!

Chapter 7, the last chapter in part 1 of Scott Cunningham's Living Wicca focuses on Wicca as part of the every day life.  I think that any person needs to have a set of morals--a code of ethics if you will--for how they want to live their life.  I believe that how I want to live my life is probably contrary to someone else's idea of how to live.  I accept that as long as their way of living is not going to in any way interfere with mine, we can coexist.
SC--I'm going to use that for the author so be warned--SC writes in the first line that "religion permeates all aspects of life" and that "mundane factors can weigh us down until we begin to question whether we ever spiritually felt a thing."  I have felt something.  I am moved by the mysteries.  I do find peace in meditation and an occasional prayer makes me feel better.  For some, this isn't the case.  For some, they do the same reflection or experience a similar comfort from their religion.  Great!  Celebrate that feeling.  Let it guide you to a life of peace and harmony and appreciation for all you have.  A spiritual center can be quite fulfilling.  The sticky part comes when someone attempts to force their spirituality on another in which case I must ask are they really acting in accordance with their spiritual center and core beliefs?  I fear that sometimes the answer would be no if they studied and reflected and applied what they know about respecting life. Any religion that touts killing another person because they believe differently is not holy in my opinion.  It is not showing respect for life.    I can't control what another person believes or practices in their own life until they bring that argument to me.  Live and let live!  However, if you bring your core values and try to use any method--force or law--to make me conform to what you say, I will object.  I will point out how what you are doing is not in accordance with respecting life.  I think that more often than not if two people with opposing views sat down and studied one another's point of view more commonalities would emerge than differences.  I've also been studying a lot on liberty lately so it's having a definite impact on my views of religion.  Wicca is my religion and I love that I have the freedom to express it as openly as I want to.  I love that my country supposedly believes in my right to practice it.  I am enjoying seeing how the principles of Wicca apply to my every day life.  However, I do not think that I should try to get my congress men or women to put forth a law that says the Wiccan Rede should be posted in public buildings because that is inappropriate.  I do not believe government should be used to further the agenda of any religion.  Again, religion and the practice thereof is deeply personal and no one's business but my own.
SC lists a few points on pages 46-47:  harm none, reincarnation, karma, magic, thought, and earth stewardship.  I figure if I let these ideas and how I practice them guide my interactions with others, then I am living in accordance with my religion and my respect for others.  Harm none--this  is the Wiccan big idea.  It teaches us to rise above negative emotions etc. to transform into something positive.  Harm none should absolutely permeate my life and I believe everyone's life.  Harm none is the most direct way to implement a respect for life and one another.  Is what I am doing going to cause harm?  I would love it if people who make laws stopped to consider how what they are doing is going to impact everyone before they sign or vote on a law.  The current personhood amendments, the defense of marriage amendments, the No Child Left Behind fiasco all do more harm than they do good when I consider them in light of harming none.
Reincarnation I haven't made up my mind about yet.  I like the idea of getting another shot if I totally screw up.  A do over is cool.  SC's point about suicide is well taken; however, harm none also should apply to that concept.  However, I tend to believe I should live my life as if this is my only one.  I feel compelled to live to the fullest and in the most authentic and good manner as  I can.  It's taken me a while to figure this part out.  I'm human afterall.  But I am trying.
Karma--I love this notion.  It is the golden rule--do onto others as you would have done onto you.  Besides, it feels good to do good things for others.  Showing kindness to someone else for the sake of doing good--not for any reward--is ideal.  I want others to respect me.  I want others to let me live as I want to live.  I want others to be happy.  Therefore, I need to act that way to others.  It's that concept of lead by example.  I am perfectly aware that I don't need a religion to teach this to me.  I know that I may not always get the best in return.  However, if I believe in harming none, then I should practice it.  If  I get back what I put out there in that regard, all the better.  The three-fold law really drives that idea home.  Essentially if you don't know, threefold law is another way of talking about karma.  It means that whatever you put into the world you get back triple the potency.
I don't know how to improve on SC's statement about magic:  Magic reminds us that we do, indeed, have control over our lives.  It does do that for sure.  I wish  more people understood that magic is really just an extension--an acting upon--prayer.
Thought--the idea of changing a negative outlook of "I lack this item so I am going to whine about it" into "I have such blessings in my life" is really rewarding.  I love it.  Sometimes others don't really like it when I suggest looking at their situation in another way.  Fine.  I look at it this way--my house is not the prettiest.  By society's standards there are all kinds of improvements I should do.  However, when I get dragged down by the lawn not being as green as my neighbor's or the porch not being centered, I think how luck I am that I have a house over my head.  I have this space that is mine.  I share this space with my husband and three cats.  It's our home and some people don't have that.  We are fortunate.  In time, we will make improvements as we see fit and not because we need to keep up with someone else's idea of beauty.
Earth stewardship--again, this goes back to harming none.  The more I've read though, you have to be very careful on this point.  Some organizations I think would be harming none, actually do.  Humans are such a passionate species that we forget sometimes.  We forget that our one little cause impacts so much more beyond our own little reality.  We must truly think about our actions and what we're doing and what is best for us and our world.  We can't live without it.  That's fairly straightforward as far as guiding principles are concerned.  How best can we live in accordance with the planet without harming ourselves or anything else?  Too often I think we we look at it through the greedy goggles.
If you can start to bring all of these ideas together and try to incorporate them into your life every day--let them be your conscience--then maybe we'll get it.
Whew.  Lotta stuff to consider with this chapter.  Applying the tenets is never easy.  One thing I love about Wicca--I really don't have any major arguments against these ideas.  I don't see how I could.  Solitary Wicca doesn't tell me I have to believe in everything.  I'm honestly not really sure about the whole reincarnation thing.  I think it's completely possible that this is all there is.  Therefore, I should harm none and love this life as much as possible.